Firenze tramway concessionaire Meridiam announced on July 15 that it had reached financial close for the €405m construction of the 7 km extension 3.2.1 to Bagno a Ripoli which is scheduled to open in 2027.
On July 14 Wien operator Wiener Linien exercised an option for Alstom to supply a further 27 Flexity trams under a 2014 framework agreement. Deliveries will run from mid-2025 to the end of 2026.
The San Diego Metropolitan Transit System board has approved the creation later this year of a standalone Copper Line light rail service, which will replace Green and Orange line services on the tracks between El Cajon Transit Center and Santee Trolley Station. This aims to improve reliability by preventing delays from a single line section impacting the rest of the network.
On June 22, the Delovoy Tsentr – Shelepikha-Khoroshyovskaya branch of Moskva’s metro Line 11 (Big Circle) was closed for rebuilding works to modernise the infrastructure and incorporate it into the future Rublyovo-Arkhangelskaya Line 17. This is under construction from Shelepikha to Lipovaya Roscha, with completion scheduled for 2026. The work will allow Big Circle services to run in uninterrupted loops with shorter headways.
Construction has started on a tram extension to link existing lines at Praha’s Muzeum metro station and Václavské Náměstí.
On July 16 the provincial government announced that work had started to create an interchange at Pape station in Toronto between TTC’s existing Bloor-Danforth Subway and the future automated Ontario Line.
Transport for London has appointed VolkerFitzpatrick to provide early contractor involvement services to support design of new maintenance facilities at Cockfosters depot. The work is part of the Piccadilly Line Upgrade programme.
Tampere city council has agreed to provide tramway operator Tampereen Raitiotie with a loan guarantee so it can exercise an option for Škoda Transtech to insert a 10 m long module to lengthen up to 11 of its existing trams to 47 m. This will help the operator to accommodate higher than expected ridership.
Chicago Transit Authority reports a positive response to the website chatbot it has launched with Google Public Sector. Users started more than 8 000 conversations in the first three months, with 28% being directly addressed by the chatbot and the rest sent to staff for review. ‘We are seeing an uptick in feedback as riders are taking advantage of utilising the tool, which makes it easier than ever to report matters impacting the customer experience’, said CTA President Dorval R Carter Jr.